[b-greek] John 21, L&N, meaning and context, literary dynamics

From: Steve Godfrey (sgodfrey@irk.ru)
Date: Sat Jan 20 2001 - 03:59:38 EST


Dear Harold, David, Wayne, and List,

My apologies for gunking up the list with html. I trust this is coming in
plain text. Human beings make mistakes, but it takes a computer to really
foul things up.

In response to my last post, Harold noted Louw & Nida's treatment of John 21
once again, and suggested that I'm ignoring this. I am not ignoring it, but
rather questioning it. I am stipulating that John intends something more
then mere stylistic variation in the way he is using AGAPAW and FILEW (as
well as the other synonyms). My previous post summarizes my reasoning. An
underlying point may be that while L&N provide a helpful emphasis on
semantics, an additional emphasis on literary dynamics will shed more light
on John's intent here. To suggest that these synonyms ought to be read as
mere stylistic variation because there is no strong grammatical or
syntactical evidence to the contrary, is an argument from silence, and
therefore presumptive, especially when there is literary evidence to the
contrary (e.g. John's style, the function of this passage as an epilogue,
Peter's subsequent reflections on this exchange, the theological
significance of the lamb of God motif). Since biblical Greek carries
meaning on a literary plane as well as on grammatical, syntactic, and
semantic ones, I trust it is appropriate to raise such questions in the
B-Greek forum.

Much earlier in the discussion, I argued that the other synonym pairs are
also likely to carry distinctions in meaning, and provided a brief proposal
for understanding the interaction of the four pairs. I won't repeat that
here, but it might provide a way forward if anyone is so inclined.

Wayne, I appreciated your response to David McKay's good question about
meaning and context. Well said.

Respectfully and appreciatively,

Steve Godfrey
Irkutsk, Siberia


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